Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for March, 2008

This past weekend, I got to enjoy an out of town tournament with my daughter and we had a great time as usual, however, there was one incident that marred the weekend a little.

The parents typically get lost easily (I include myself in that group), so we typically convoy to gymnasiums from hotels so we don’t all get lost. I had a small convoy behind me, and just as we came off a parkway in Hamilton, we came to a set of lights. We stopped, the light turned green, I turned left chatted with my passenger, looked in my rear view mirror and my convoy was gone!

That was very strange, but we went on to the gym, and I called the members of the convoy to find out whether they had turned left to go to a Tim Horton’s or the like. No, the car behind me “dropped” it’s transmission as it’s driver put their foot down on the accelerator. My heart sunk when I heard that because that is one of my pet paranoia’s (car breaking down in strange city).

This Dad luckily had roadside assistance, so he got it towed to the dealership, who declared the transmission “Dead on Arrival”, and gave him three options:

1. Replace with brand new transmission
2. Replace with rebuilt transmission
3. Walk away from the van

This Dad wasn’t sure what to do, so he rightly decided to take a rental and figure out what to do and deal with it on Monday. Now over the next 24 hours, the Dad made a plan and decided to go with option (3) and not put good money after bad in this situation. He will find another car, and deal with it, instead of attempting to nurse this old clunker any more.

How the Heck do you Decide?

When do you pull the plug in this situation. This Dad did the right thing, he deliberated, called his wife, discussed it with her, they made a plan and are executing it, but I am always amazed when people can make that decision.

I can look back on decisions I have made and figure out whether they are right or wrong, but only in hindsight, making a BIG decision like, “let’s push the car off the cliff” causes me to go into decision brain freeze. I sit there make lists argue all sides of the decision and then usually don’t decide, or procrastinate. Luckily my mechanic is very honest and makes the decision for me (i.e., “Alan this thing is a death trap and I am not fixing it any more, go get another car”).

How do you decide when it is time to get rid of a car? When is “enough” money spent on a car?

This week ends with the following things sticking in my head:

1. Nothing of great excitement in the Ontario Provincial Budget 2008, other than the fact that it is balanced and there are no new taxes (which I guess is good news). Whoopee?
2. The BCE purchase looks to be ok with the CRTC, but now we need to see if the Teachers’ Union is ok with the conditions placed on the sale.
3. I already gloated about my refund for my taxes, sorry, it’s one of the rare times where I feel like gloating.
4. Canada’s population is now 33,143,600 as of January 1, 2008! That’s kind of cool, we have a larger population than London or New York City, which is a good thing (I think).
5. Server problems continue for this site, so please stay with me, in the words of the PQ, “C’est pas ma faute! C’est la faute du Federal!” (ok that is a Bowser and Blue quote). Sorry Monsieur Klein.

Comments Please!

I find that I get some comments from a few dedicated (or maybe belligerent) readers on most of my posts, however this time, I want to hear from any reader. What do I want to hear?

• What do you like about the stuff I am posting about?
• Are there subjects you want to read more about?
• Topics I maybe don’t touch on that you want to read about?
• Things you don’t really want to read about, and I should drop from my writings?

Wish I had free stuff to give away for this (I am working on that), but I will personally attempt to reply to each comment if you do (as I normally do). It might be on delay, since I am out of town this weekend.

Remember I have spam filters on, so your comments don’t appear right away

Today the CRTC will rule on whether the BCE takeover bid is ok by them today. This could make the stock either leap back up to the purchase price (if the banks involved honour their previous commitment) of $42.50 or if the takeover by the Teachers Pension Fund is turned down, it could drive the stock well below $30.00 a share, since the deal would effectively be dead at that point. Stay Tuned. As a BCE Shareholder I am hoping the CRTC is ok with the takeover bid (as a personal statement).

Child Tax Credit

With my daughter turning 18 this past month, my “Family Allowance” cheque now drops dramatically (to about a 1/3 of what I was getting), which is unfortunate, but understandable too. I am still astounded that I was getting this, but then again, I never complain when money is given to me (please keep that in mind if you have extra cash and you aren’t sure what to do with it, donations to me are always appreciated).

Free Crap

For some odd reason, a few printed book publishers seem to think that it is worth sending me FC (free crap) to see if I might review their books on my web site. As most of you know, I have a reading disorder (i.e. I don’t read much, I listen to books on CD mostly), but I got another free book yesterday. I will attempt to read it and see if it is worth giving away to one of you valued readers, so stay tuned, there might be a contest coming up soon.

Server Issues

Off topic, some folks may have noticed my site has been on and off the past few days. My serving site Dreamhost is having some internal issues, which they assure me will be remedied soon, so I apologize for any issues you may have run into, and I hope you continue on as a valued reader of my scribblings (or tappings or clickings).

For me, not much really. The official news release about the budget can be found here. The only highlights that affect me indirectly and directly are:

• $1.5 billion, three-year Skills to Jobs Action Plan, which really doesn’t touch me directly, unless of course I get laid off and want to learn a real trade, then it might.
• Lots of spending in the health area, which should touch me in some fashion ($40.4 Billion)
• $18.8Billion in Education grants for class size, since my kids are still in school that is a nice addition.
• “…$385 million over three years for an annual Textbook and Technology Grant that will help every full-time university and college student…”, that would help out because text books cost a BLOODY fortune.
• And there are no tax increases, which is good too, since I don’t like tax increases no matter what, I am funny that way.

Kind of ho-hum budget, some perks for businesses, but nothing much for me, but some useful infrastructure spending (mostly in Toronto) too.

Best of: Library our Frugal Friend

One of the best places to get any financial information is your local public library and I just remembered a post I did a while back about The Library Our Frugal Friend.

Given I am an unpublished author (well not really an author, but a writer), here is a great tip for you folks who want to READ and LEARN about Financial things:

GO TO YOUR LIBRARY!

Pretty simple. Here in Ottawa the one thing that amalgamation did do is create a large very well stocked Library (click on Go To Your Library to see their web site).

I take out Music CD’s, DVD’s, VHS Videos, and most importantly books. Pretty much any and all books I might mention here in this blog, I have taken out of the library (I can’t afford to BUY books, but I can afford to take them out, read them, and maybe jot down in a notebook the parts which I agree with, or think are a good idea).

Usually your local library membership is FREE (in Ottawa it is), and most are relatively cheap, and you get your money’s worth very quickly. In fact DONATE to your library to keep them up and running (heck, even Volunteer, they are usually looking for those too). Libraries are great resources for the CHEAP and FRUGAL!

Let me leave you with a Simpson point of view on the Library:

Homer: Now, who’s up for a trip to the library tomorrow? Notice I no longer say liberrie or tomorrie.

Today the McGuinty provincial government will announce their budget for this year, and so far the only person making any ruckus about it is Jim Flaherty. Jim thinks that since he is a Federal MP from Ontario he can comment on what the Provincial government should and should not be doing in this budget. All in all it makes for a good read, but so far very little substance has been leaked about what might be in this year’s provincial budget, other than more spending, maybe?

Is Ontario so boring that no one cares? I don’t think that is the case, but here are some things I’d like to see in the budget:

• A stop in the spendthrift attitude of this government, and no you can’t blame the Tories for this any more, you guys have been in power long enough, that YOU are as much to blame as any previous government.
• A provincial household income or income splitting capability? Yes, I know, I say that every time, you caught me.
• Lower taxes for businesses, since we need to attract more business to Ontario to keep it strong and free.

Just some ideas, but my guess is nothing like that. Hopefully no tax increases or hidden taxes for us rich folk, would make my day. I have given up on tax cuts, but a real plan to pay down the Provincial Debt would be cool too (or a statement about how it is being paid down).

What to do with a refund?

I think in my case the best thing to do with a refund is take 10% and blow it on something frivolous to enjoy it in some way, and then take the rest and pay down debt. My guess is my debt is my best investment point for the next 10 years, since controlling it and/or lowering it is the main goal of any plan I attempt.

If it suddenly rained money, I might not follow that advice as closely, but I think it is a sound idea. My ability to invest intelligently and pick the right investments aside (and I really am not very good at that), paying down debt is a much easier investment, since it is sitting right in front of me.